


just like starting over

by torch



Category: Naruto
Genre: Arguing, Food, M/M, Sex, Timeline What Timeline, not all at the same time - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:14:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22175386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torch/pseuds/torch
Summary: Iruka is a polite and charming host to an unexpected guest. Kakashi shows himself from his best side, probably.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 26
Kudos: 313





	just like starting over

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to mary crawford, who figured out how I should fix the ending, and also elynross, who gave me the title.

Someone was at the door. Iruka stuck his pencil in his hair and went to open. He wasn't expecting anyone, so he put on his best scowl, the kind that made door-to-door salespeople turn and flee. Outside was Hatake Kakashi with a bright grin under the mask and a large basket; he took a step inside before Iruka could say anything.

"Hi. Wanna go out with me?" Iruka blinked. That was an unexpected opener. "Or in. In is better, really, I got us all this food, I suppose you have somewhere we could eat it. It's a date if we call it a date, I say. But I was really thinking more long-term, I mean dinner is nice, but—"

"What the hell?" Iruka said, not one of his better efforts, but he felt it got his feelings across. There was a strange shinobi standing just inside his door — stranger than most, truth be told — and he wasn't exactly expecting to see anyone. He started to long for a nice uncomplicated vacuum cleaner sales lady. "What are you doing here?"

"— a relationship is nicer. Not to undervalue dinner. Or your ass, which is the best in the village." Iruka thought he must have missed some part of the conversation. On the other hand, if it was mostly about his body parts, he couldn't have missed much. "So when I say go out, I mean long-term." Kakashi kept grinning. "Also I mean in, as I said, but I think we can discuss that later. Out. In. I think it would be a good idea." The invisible grin was decidedly lascivious now.

"You're crazy," Iruka said, with some conviction. He meant to go on a long rant about Kakashi's habits, personality, and behavior, but instead he pointed out, "I don't even know what you look like."

"Oh, right." Kakashi looked a little sheepish. He was very expressive for someone who was basically just hair and an eye. "That might be a sticking point. I keep forgetting it was a new moon that night and you couldn't see me when I—"

Iruka made a squeaking sound. "The new moon? That was — that was _you_?"

"Ah, yes, that was me. So I know we're compatible that way, and honestly, if you hated it, you were hiding it really, really well." Iruka flushed hotly. "Anyway, relationship." Kakashi put the basket down and pulled his mask away from his face, completely matter of fact about it. "I've been told I have a fish mouth, so you have to let me know what kind, maybe I remind you of—"

"Kissing," Iruka said without thinking, staring at Kakashi's bared face, which did not in any way resemble a fish of any kind. At all. "Your mouth looks like it was made for kissing."

Kakashi smiled, and now both his eyes crinkled, though he kept the left one closed. "There's an invitation if I ever heard one."

Iruka flung a hand up. "Then you never heard one," he said, doing his best to sharpen his voice. "That was weeks ago! I know you've never been _punctual_ , but it can't have taken you weeks to buy food."

"I was on a mission," Kakashi said mildly. "You don't imagine anything but a direct order could have drawn me away from your side, do you?"

"Yes, I do!" Iruka had hit his stride for waspish now, which was easier when he didn't think about that night. "I'm aware that I barely know you," Kakashi winced and opened his mouth to say something, but Iruka talked right over him, "but the whole village knows about the laziness and the porn and the, the—"

"The dashing good looks and charming personality?"

"What charming personality?" Iruka glared. "And no one's going to know about your dashing good looks when you cover up your entire face all the time."

"Very true." Kakashi looked completely in agreement, and also slightly amused, which made Iruka want to hit him right in his stupidly pretty face. "I suppose I'd rather keep my dashing good looks for the person I'm dating."

"You're not dating me," Iruka said.

"Yet."

Iruka drew a deep breath. "I won't kill you," he said, hoping Kakashi wouldn't miss the point and tell him he couldn't, "because the village needs you. We had sex once, weeks ago, when I didn't even know it was you and we went our separate ways without a word. You think you can just turn up again when it's convenient for you and I'll fall into your arms because you brought a picnic basket?"

"I was on a mission," Kakashi said again. "But now I'm back, and if you don't object to my fish mouth—"

"That is not what I'm objecting to!" Iruka very much wanted to hit something, but Kakashi would just dodge and hitting the picnic basket seemed wasteful. "You don't have a fish mouth, but that doesn't mean you can just waltz in here and— Wait, you _knew who I was_ that night?"

"That ass is unmistakable," Kakashi said.

Iruka tried to decide whether he wanted to die on the spot, or kill Kakashi despite just having said he wouldn't. Maybe he could kill him just a little bit. "You've been staring at my ass enough that you know it in an alley at moon-dark?! You pervert!"

"Well, now." Kakashi just grinned. "Your ass was there in the alley because you were having anonymous sex up against the wall. I don't think I'm the only pervert in this relationship."

"It's not a relationship! And if you knew who I was all the time, it wasn't anonymous sex, either."

"It's the ass," Kakashi said. "And the shoulders, you've got very nice shoulders."

"So glad you approve," Iruka snarled. "You knew who I was and you had sex with me anyway!"

Kakashi nodded. "Really, I am a little sad that you think I'd only have sex with you if I didn't know who you were," he said, looking about as sad as the picnic basket. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"For some kind of picnic basket booty call!"

Now Kakashi did manage to look wounded, which was probably a reliable sign that he really wasn't. "I want to date you, Iruka-ch—" Iruka made a noise like water spilled on a hot stove. "—Iruka-san! I came here to ask you out!"

"In."

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, it's true that indoors tends to be more comfortable for both food and sex, but if you like it better outside, I'm flexible. After all, we first had sex outdoors."

"That's not the point!" Not that Iruka was entirely sure what the point was, but that wasn't... well, that wasn't the point. "You say you're here because you want to date me, but you keep talking about how you want to have sex with me."

"Of course I want to have sex with you," Kakashi said. "It was amazing the first time. Which you already know, since you were there. And since you don't object to my mouth, we could do it again, with the addition of that kissing thing you mentioned."

Iruka shook his head. "I've been yelling at you since you stepped in here. What makes you think I want to kiss you?"

"It's more of a wistful hope," Kakashi said, straightfaced. "You did say my mouth was made for kissing you."

"That's not what I said," Iruka protested. He didn't step back when Kakashi stepped forward, and why should he, this was his apartment, and if Kakashi thought he could just come in here with his basket and his ridiculous proposition and his _mouth_...

That mouth was just as good as it looked. Better. Kakashi's lips were soft, but very insistent, and his tongue was, it was—

There hadn't been any kissing in that dark alley, and against this kiss, Iruka had no defences at all. He'd forgotten how good it felt, kissing, and Kakashi didn't do anything else, didn't even touch him, just kissed him and kissed him until Iruka got impatient enough to grab his tac vest and _yank_.

Then there were hands everywhere, and they wouldn't have made it across the living room floor without falling if they hadn't been shinobi, trying to press tight against each other and push each other along at the same time. They went down on the couch, side by side for a brief moment before Kakashi tugged Iruka over across his legs. Iruka twisted so he could yell in Kakashi's face about it, and Kakashi kissed him again.

"I like the noises you make," Kakashi said. Iruka drew breath to yell again, but Kakashi got hold of his nipple through the shirt and rubbed it firmly, and the yell came out a squeak."Like that."

"Anyone would make a noise if you did that." Kakashi did it again, and Iruka squeaked again, and if he'd at least done it exactly the same, he could have pretended it was all casual comedy. But no, Kakashi's fingers on his nipple made him hotly aware of how turned-on the kisses had already made him, and how turned-on just the memory of that encounter in the alley made him. "Bastard," Iruka said, and Kakashi just nodded bland agreement and started to pull Iruka's shirt off.

Iruka wanted to protest, but he also wanted more of Kakashi's hands on him, wanted that touch on his bare skin. He tugged at the shirt himself, either helping or hindering, he honestly wasn't sure which, and when Kakashi's thumb rubbed across Iruka's other nipple, Iruka jerked and a few stitches ripped.

"You're a wild one," Kakashi said, tugging the ruined shirt away. "I should have guessed. I'd better take mine off before you wreck that, too."

"It was an _accident_!" Iruka glared. "And it wouldn't have happened if you weren't here."

"I'm very glad to hear that," Kakashi said, wriggling out of his vest in a way that pressed his groin against Iruka's hip. Kakashi was definitely affected by the kissing. "I would hate to think of you stripping in such an uninhibited manner for someone else."

Iruka smacked his fist into Kakashi's shoulder, not at all distracted by the firm muscle he hit. "I," he said very precisely, "will take my clothes off in any manner I want, for anyone I want."

"I know." Kakashi took his own shirt off almost too fast to track. "That's why I'm so glad that you're doing it for me." Then he skimmed his thumbs over Iruka's nipples again, and Iruka would have blushed at the noise he made if he'd had any blood flow to spare in that direction.

Stripped to the waist, Kakashi leaned back and tugged off the lopsided forehead protector, and Iruka saw all of his bare face for the first time, one mild dark eye and one spinning with red and black. The scar that cut down and across the eye on that side was long-healed and amazingly clean, just about reduced to a straight, decorative line that didn't even pull the eyelid askew. Iruka reached out without thinking and drew a finger along the line of it.

Kakashi didn't say anything, but he tensed under Iruka, and Iruka leaned back. "Sorry, that was forward."

"We've been more intimate," Kakashi said lightly, "and I hope we will be again."

"We don't even know each other," Iruka said, aware that the words would sound like more of an objection if he wasn't half-naked and sprawled on an also half-naked Kakashi's lap.

"We know the most important things. We're sexually compatible — very compatible," Kakashi added, and Iruka flushed, only half in anger. "We're both loyal to Konoha, and we both value our cute little students."

"That's a very short list of things to have in common." Nor did Iruka think they had the same level of engagement with the same number of _cute little students_. From what he'd seen, Kakashi only cared about an extremely limited number of individuals on a personal level.

Which, admittedly, made the thought of becoming one of them more intriguing.

"But finding out more will be a way for us to grow together," Kakashi said, and then his blithe earnestness took on a leering edge. "Though I think we should explore the first item on the list some more." He ran his fingers down Iruka's spine. "In-depth."

Iruka shuddered. He wanted to argue more against this whole ridiculous set-up and laugh at Kakashi's cheesy lines, but Kakashi's touch and the way it made him feel was absurdly difficult to muster up any arguments against. "Really?" he managed. "That's the first thing you think we should do?"

"It was already the first thing we did." Kakashi flicked a finger at Iruka's ponytail and quirked an eyebrow, and Iruka only hesitated for an instant, trying to remember if his hair was decently clean, before nodding. Kakashi worked the tie free, and Iruka's hair fell any which way.

"Yes, but," he said, having already lost track of his argument.

Kakashi skritched at Iruka's scalp and tugged at his unbound hair. "Well, since you insist," he said with a smile. "Food. I brought food."

"I have a kitchen," Iruka said. "Kitchen area, anyway." Teaching at the Academy might be rewarding work — sometimes, at least — but not _financially_ rewarding. He could afford either an apartment with a decent-sized kitchen or an apartment with a decent-sized bathroom, and he wasn't known for his culinary prowess.

"I thought food in bed." Kakashi's smile didn't change. Or maybe it did. Iruka wasn't sure if Kakashi's bare face was more or less expressive than his covered one had been. He kept glancing at Kakashi's right eye for cues, since that's all he was used to seeing. "Tastes better that way."

Iruka shook his head. No one ate food in his bed. Then again, a lot of things seemed to be about to happen in his bed now that had never happened before, and Kakashi was clearly to blame for all of them. If blame was the right word. And the night that caused all this—

It hadn't been Kakashi's _fault_ , precisely. Iruka had decided that since his track record was so abysmal anyway, he might as well go for a shinobi village's version of anonymous sex. Everyone knew that the people who took high-risk missions needed a way to blow off steam. Everyone knew where they did it. Behind a certain cheap bar that the same ubiquitous everyone knew about and claimed not to go to, so Iruka had gone there, to the dark alley behind that cheap bar, and he'd nodded yes, and he'd had sex up against the wall, while politely not even trying to see his partner's face.

He'd expected to feel cheap, easy, slutty. Used and discarded, even though he was there of his own volition and acting in the interest of the village. He'd been there to give, and instead, being taken had been a gift — the best sexual experience of his life, his unknown partner treating him with such staggering tenderness and at the same time fucking him so perfectly that he hadn't known whether to burst into tears or come screaming, and he'd probably done both.

"I'll get the food," he said, a bit too fast, and got up. His skin was reluctant to leave Kakashi's skin. Iruka padded across the floor and stopped at the door to look back over his shoulder. Kakashi had rolled to one side and was propped up on his elbow, watching Iruka.

"Best ass in the village," he said. "I have to gloat a bit."

Iruka flushed. He went to get the bag of food, and also picked up a roll of paper towels and some extra chopsticks, just in case. When he came back Kakashi lay on his back on the couch, spread out and relaxed. His profile showed clean against the dark cushions, and there was still nothing fish-like about it. His nose was a little sharp. His mouth was gorgeous. Iruka sat on the edge of the couch and began to unpack.

Plain rice, fancy rice with shredded greens on top, pickled daikon, various dumplings with various sauces. Inarizushi. Soup in styrofoam cups. Noodles. Sesame paste. Candy-colored dango. Stuff. It was an eclectic mix, rather than a single meal. What was more, everything that should be hot was still hot, and everything that should be cold was still cold. That was a jutsu he wouldn't mind learning.

"Have some of this," he said and passed the daikon to Kakashi. "Did you bring anything to drink?"

"There should be tea somewhere," Kakashi said, sounding rather vague about it.

Iruka huffed and kept the pork dumplings in plum sauce to himself. Then he spilled plum sauce on his inner arm, and Kakashi gripped him by the wrist, glanced up at him, and licked it off, very thoroughly. "We were going to eat," Iruka said. "Food."

"Yes, but I find you very distracting." Kakashi dragged his tongue from the sensitive skin in the crook of Iruka's elbow down to where his pulse was beating like thunder in his wrist. "And the food will still be here afterwards."

Shivery with want that overrode all his common-sense objections, Iruka turned to pack up the food again, but he'd barely gotten started when Kakashi rolled to his feet and dragged Iruka along, hands still full, pulled him over to the bedroom, and bore him down on the bed.

Things got a little messy after that, especially once Iruka found that he was carrying the honey sauce. His bed was never going to be the same again.

He wasn't quite sure how all the licking and tussling, all the kisses, all the tight grips and teasing touches led to this, kneeling astride Kakashi, facing the foot of the bed and unable to see the man's face — again! At least this time he knew who he wasn't seeing — as Kakashi said, "I want to see you finger yourself." Iruka made a sound of embarrassed protest, but he still reached for the lube, much as he'd gone for the food before. Kakashi's hands were on his legs, one caressing his calf, one trailing teasing fingertips up his opposite leg. "I know you must have done it that night, getting yourself ready, but I really want to watch." Maybe that was someone else's fingers slicked up, reaching back. "Just around the outside to start with."

Iruka rubbed a fingertip against the outside of his opening and tried to pretend it was someone else's finger. He tried to pretend it was someone else's hole twitching at the gentle touch, trying to draw that finger in. When he'd touched himself that night to get ready for what he'd decided to do, he'd been efficient about it, not trying to tease himself. Any excitement he'd felt — and yes, all right, there'd been excitement, hot and nervous, coiling inside him — had been because of why he was doing it.

He hadn't expected much from the actual sex. There'd just been a pleasure, an anticipation, feeling strangely heated at the thought of satisfying someone else's need, whether it was pre-mission jitters or the darker urges that came after a harsh mission was over.

Kakashi didn't look as if he'd ever had pre-mission jitters in his life. A post-mission edge, yes, Iruka could imagine that, but...

Wait. Post-mission. Like right now.

Iruka felt as if everything tipped over ninety degrees and slotted into place — the light, earnest conversation, the absurdity, the fervent kisses. This was Kakashi post-mission, with absolutely nothing on show, bare-faced or not, except that everything was. Because Kakashi wasn't in a dark alley behind a disreputable bar working his post-mission stress out, he was in Iruka's bedroom, asking for what he wanted and doing it so lazily, so flippantly, he didn't sound as though he meant a word of what he said.

"You're ridiculous," Iruka grumbled quietly, "and so am I." Because he was doing it. Again. He knew Kakashi was watching him. At least Kakashi couldn't see his face.

Again.

More cool lube squirted over Iruka's fingers. "Just a fingertip," Kakashi said, his voice still disturbingly even. "Slow. It's not an efficiency contest."

Iruka pressed in a fingertip. It did feel like someone else's finger, and not like the quick and practical touch he'd used last time. Somehow having given over control of his actions to another made him feel as though his fingers weren't quite his own. "Deeper," he breathed, and it was a request, not a statement.

"Deeper," Kakashi agreed. Iruka slid his finger in, keeping to the same slow pace, all the way to the knuckle. "That's pretty. Keep doing that." So he did. Iruka slid the middle finger of his right hand out and back in, without speeding up, over and over. Knowing he was being watched very closely and carefully made him shudder.

"Two fingers," Kakashi said.

Iruka slid in his index finger as well, slowly, because he knew otherwise Kakashi would tell him to do it slowly anyway. It really did feel like someone else's finger. "Nn."

Kakashi's hands touched the backs of his thighs, caressed slowly, slid upwards. Kakashi's voice might be casual but his hands were more honest, stroking and holding with precision and intent. "You really have an amazing ass," Kakashi said and spread him wider open. Iruka shook in the grip of those scarred, callused hands. One of Kakashi's fingertips started to play around his opening, skating in all that lube, teasing the slick skin.

"Oh," Iruka breathed. That fingertip went in, pressing next to his own and for a moment he couldn't remember which fingers were his and which were—

"I think," Kakashi said, finger going all the way in, "that you should ride me."

"Yes." More lube, and Iruka turned, feeling ungainly, although he couldn't think of a way anyone could be more graceful doing this. Kakashi's cock was very hard in his hands and then he screwed himself down with slow care, moaning as he did. Oh. They fit perfectly together, just like the first time... no, better than the first time. Kakashi's hands were on his thighs again, the front this time, warm and steady.

"Positively lewd," Kakashi said, but in a way that made it very clear he approved.

Iruka blushed hotly and tried his best to scowl at the same time, because he was a good chuunin and a respectable schoolteacher, not the kind of lewdly-behaving porn creation that no doubt appeared regularly in Kakashi's reading material.

Except that he was also the person who'd gone into a dark alley to be fucked by a stranger, was also the person having sex with Kakashi right now and being what Kakashi called lewd, and it was such a relief not to have to be good and respectable, to do what he wanted, what Kakashi wanted, and get a look like that in return.

"And gorgeous," Kakashi breathed, barely giving the words shape, "I knew you'd be gorgeous like this." He didn't take back _lewd_ , and Iruka didn't want him to. "Make yourself feel good." Iruka leaned forward and rocked, all of him intent on that feeling inside. His hair clung to his sweat-damp shoulders, an unfamiliar itch, and at another time he might have cared. Now it seemed very far away, and the rising pleasure was very immediate.

Then Kakashi pulled his legs up, the angle changed and deepened and Iruka's breath hitched. "Oh," he moaned. "Oh oh _oh_." The fingers of one hand clenched on Kakashi's chest. "Oh!"

Iruka moved faster, feeling hands on him and eyes on him — the Sharingan spinning to register his every movement, giving it the same weight and importance as a complex jutsu. His skin prickled, and even though his movement was simple and repetitive, the resulting sensation felt huge and multilayered enough to take up every breath of time in his world. This was perfect. They were perfect together.

Kakashi drew his fingers down Iruka's chest and stomach, and Iruka would not have been surprised to see trails of bloody red, or smoking silver scars, in the wake of those knowing fingertips. Iruka's breath hitched in his throat. Kakashi's hand wrapped loosely around his cock, not even stroking, just giving him something to fuck into. The next hitching breath turned into a thin cry, and Iruka came, laying his pleasure out in the open, spreading it all over Kakashi's skin.

If this was being lewd, he wanted to be lewd every day.

Kakashi held him in a different way, there was a soft pop of displaced air and then Iruka was on his back with Kakashi on top, lean and hard and on him, over him, in him. He wrapped his arms around Kakashi's shoulders and crossed his ankles in the small of Kakashi's back. "So hot," Kakashi mouthed into the skin of his throat, hair tickling Iruka's ear. "The way you feel, it's—"

Perfect, Iruka didn't say, drawing a hand down the long muscles of Kakashi's back; this was impossibly good and Kakashi inside him felt too perfect to be real. This slow, steady fucking made him flush all over with heavy aftershocks, as if his orgasm just went on and on. And that was just fine. As far as Iruka was concerned, it could go on forever. He chewed gently at Kakashi's shoulder. Salt and spices, the hidden taste of unnaturally pale skin. There should be sunshine here, Iruka thought, licking, tasting.

"I could fuck you for the rest of my life," Kakashi said, and Iruka voiced incoherent agreement in the back of his throat. "Awkward on," deep breath, "missions, but..."

"You're so." Iruka was overcome by it, this profoundly silly man in his bed who was so annoying and so pretty and so amazing to have sex with. He clamped down on Kakashi with his arms and legs and all his inner muscles, gripped him as tight as he could.

Kakashi made a sound deep in his throat and his hips jerked, and Iruka could feel the intense pulses going through him; then he sprawled on Iruka's chest, amazingly heavy for such a lanky man. "I lied to you before," he whispered breathlessly. "The truth is, I just couldn't stand the thought of you making those sweet sounds for anyone else."

"Like anyone would want me to," Iruka muttered. There was a reason he'd gone looking for anonymous sex in the first place. He wasn't entirely sure how that had led to being back here in his own bed, underneath a jounin who apparently doubled his body weight when he came and feeling too satisfied himself to do anything about that.

"Well, I want you to." Kakashi pressed a kiss at the corner of Iruka's jaw as he pulled out, distracting them both. "I want you so much. I hope you noticed. Don't move."

"You just want my ass."

"Well, that too," Kakashi said cheerfully. Apparently he recovered very fast.

Iruka thought he should in fact be the one to move, because the bathroom was the obvious next stop, and it was his bathroom. But this was different from their only previous time together, when they'd leaned against the wall afterwards for such a long and disturbingly tender time that Iruka had finally left before he had to admit it was vertical cuddling.

This time, he just remained where he was until Kakashi came back and cleaned him gently and slipped back into bed, tangling their arms and legs together. It seemed there would be cuddling after all. Horizontal, even.

Kakashi stroked his hair, spreading it out on the pillow in some unknown pattern and working his fingertips in underneath to rub at Iruka's scalp, which felt almost better than the sex.

"That was my best face cloth," Iruka said, trying not to surrender to the sweetness.

"Well, now you need to do laundry." Kakashi stroked his hair. "I feel like a god. You're incredible when you come for me."

"You've already got me in bed." Iruka ignored the way his face heated. Everything had seemed very clear and obvious a moment ago. But then he'd been coming his brains out a moment ago, and now he was back to being himself. "You don't have to sweet-talk me now."

"You never believe me when I'm being romantic."

"Any reason why I should?" Iruka shoved at the arm he was lying on, but not very hard, in case it made Kakashi move. "You've never tried to be romantic at me before you came here tonight." He thought about it. "At least, I sincerely hope not."

"You're very hard-hearted when we're not having sex." Kakashi batted his eyelashes, which was so ridiculous that Iruka shoved harder. "Hard-hearted and violent, when I'm telling you how wonderful you are."

"I thought we already agreed that I don't believe you. Your sincerity leaves something to be desired."

"Now, now." Kakashi made a show of looking wounded. "You could just take it on faith because I'm me."

Iruka snorted. "I don't even know you."

"But you have years and years to get to know me," Kakashi pointed out brightly. "We can grow old together."

"You're doing it again."

"Older, anyway. See, now I'm realistic. Ow. Elbow."

"You're silly," Iruka said flatly, knowing that Kakashi could have avoided that elbow without thinking about it, that he'd probably had to think to remember not avoiding it.

"Well, yes. Often. Is that a deal-breaker?" Kakashi kissed his temple. "And don't you think it's a bit early in our relationship to break up? We haven't even been on a proper date yet."

"You showed up at my door and said you wanted to have sex with me because my ass was so good in a dark alley once."

"Now, now, is that a way for a respectable teacher to talk?" Iruka stiffened. Kakashi smiled blithely at him. "I like you a great deal when you're not being respectable, Iruka. But in fairness to myself, I'd like to point out that I showed up at your door and asked you to have a meal and go on a date with me. You're the one who started tearing his clothes off—"

"I did not!" Iruka snapped. "That was just an accident, and it was much later! You're the one who showed up and started talking about my ass the first thing you did."

"And as soon as you saw my face you wanted to kiss me despite my fish mouth, so you dragged me down on the couch and—" Iruka elbowed him again. "You really are a very violent person, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not! I'm not even in anyone's Bingo Book! And you don't have a fish mouth, and I didn't try to kiss you as soon as I saw your face, and if this is your approach to the truth I really wonder about your mission reports."

"Violent and hard-hearted and suspicious," Kakashi said, and his eye crinkled, which looked more genuine than the smile. "I like it. Do you think we could eat some of that food now? I'd be happy to lick honey sauce off any part of you, too."

Iruka pushed himself up on one elbow and stared at the man in his bed. He tried to recapture the feeling of knowing Kakashi, understanding him, or at least not wanting to yell at him. But really, was this post-mission decompression, or just Kakashi's regular level of annoying?

"Not in the bed," he said with the kind of firmness he usually reserved for telling six-year-olds not to bring frogs inside.

"The sheets are already wrecked." Kakashi poked a delicate fingertip at a lube stain. "And you were already planning to do laundry, so we could—"

"I wasn't!" Iruka yelped, firm tone going out the window. "This is all your fault."

"Well, I'm happy to take responsibility for the improved cleanliness in your home. Hygiene is important."

"There is nothing wrong with my hygiene!" Iruka would have interrupted Kakashi earlier if it hadn't taken him a moment to get his tongue working right. "And if you think my bed is so dirty, you can just get right out of it—"

"Now, now, Iruka-san—"

"—and we'll eat at the table like civilized people."

"But I like being dirty with you in your bed," Kakashi said plaintively. He rubbed his face against Iruka's throat. "You smell good."

Iruka thought he probably smelled like sweat, and sex, and a little like plum sauce. "Are you sniffing me?" He tried to push Kakashi's head away. "Stop that!"

"Well, but you really do smell good." Kakashi sank back a little. "Surely you must be used to this from your lovers."

"I don't have any lovers!" Iruka snapped. "I mean, uh, you make it sound as though I have a harem."

"If people knew about those sweet sounds," Kakashi started, and Iruka smacked him. "Ow."

"I thought you'd move!" Iruka was a little flustered. "I didn't mean to actually hit you."

"Violent," Kakashi said dreamily, as if that was the best possible trait for a bed-partner to have. "Best ass in the village. I'm very lucky that you were still single, but it gives me a low opinion of the rest of Konoha."

"I think you already had that," Iruka said. "Stop talking as though I'm a catch. I'm not."

"You are," Kakashi informed him seriously, "and it grieves me that you don't know it. Tell me about your sad and tangled dating history."

Iruka had to laugh a bit. "Not all of it, surely," he said. "We'd be here a long time."

"I wouldn't mind staying like this forever," Kakashi said mildly, and Iruka snorted again. "But if your past love life is such a long story full of people who don't appreciate you properly, it would probably depress me nearly as much as mine does. Tell me about your future plans instead. I hope they include going out with me. Or in."

Iruka shook his head. "You don't even like me."

Kakashi propped himself up on one elbow, as close to serious as Iruka had ever seen him. "I like you. I don't always agree with you. There's a difference." Then his face crinkled in a smile. "Shouldn't this conversation be the other way around, anyway? You don't even like me, Iruka-san. You've been telling me everything you think is wrong with me since I got here."

"I haven't even gotten to half of the things," Iruka said, "but you're good in bed." That got him a smile that was warmer and more genuine than anything he'd seen so far, and which did not at all in any way make him weak in the knees. "I'm starting to understand why you wear a mask. You're."

"Hiding the fish mouth," Kakashi said helpfully.

"Ridiculously good-looking." Iruka tried for his best get-that-frog-out-of-my-classroom-NOW voice. "But that doesn't mean you can eat food in my bed!" He pushed at Kakashi's shoulder. "Come on. Or I'll eat all the dango myself."

"Well, I've never cared much for sweet things, so..." Kakashi rolled back and stretched like a man who was planning to stay in bed indefinitely. He dodged Iruka's next shoulder-punch by a hairsbreadth and sat up at the opposite side of the bed as if he'd always meant to do that. "Very well, since you're so insistent, let's go have food at the table and be civilized. I promise not to eat with my fingers. Much." Iruka glared. "Oh, is that going to be a deal-breaker?" Kakashi smiled that ridiculous smile again. "Looks like you're going to be a good influence on me."

"You could use one," Iruka retaliated without thinking. Then he stopped and turned his head to look at Kakashi as sternly as he could manage. "No. You're a grown man. I'm not going to _look after you_."

"Oh, does this mean we can't roleplay stern teacher and irresponsible student in bed? Now I'm disappointed." Kakashi pulled his pants on as he got to his feet and offered Iruka a hand up. "Although some food might cheer me up."

Iruka allowed himself to be pulled to his feet and accepted the pants Kakashi held out to him like an offering. "You can have all the inarizushi."

"Got it, no inarizushi next time." Kakashi walked towards the living room where the various food containers were spread out. He had scratches down his back on one side, which Iruka had no memory of making until he looked down at his nails. Looking back at Iruka, bare-faced and bare-chested and barefoot, it was still Kakashi's voice that was nearly naked when he said, "If there is a next time."

"Of course there's a next time." Iruka followed Kakashi out into the living room. "I still have to tell you all the rest of the things that are wrong with you."

"Quite a weighty undertaking."

"It might take me a while," Iruka agreed, and saw Kakashi settle back into cheerful smugness.

"Your will of fire is admirable, Iruka-ch—" Iruka punched straight from the shoulder, and Kakashi dodged by a hairsbreadth. "You're _delightfully_ violent."

"And you're insufferable," Iruka said, prodding Kakashi forward with two knuckles in the small of his back, which Kakashi didn't dodge. "Come on, let's go eat."

**Author's Note:**

> https://theendofcake.tumblr.com/post/190145369898/just-like-starting-over-torch-naruto-archive
> 
> For the tumblristically inclined :)


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